Students Fully Immersed in Salmon Education

By Nathan Zabel, Education Programs Manager

This school year, NSEA’s Students for Salmon (SFS) education program expanded programming to include salmon rearing aquariums and professional development workshops for teachers on our newly revised teacher-led curriculum.

SFS is offered at no cost to the school districts for all 4th grade students throughout Whatcom County. Students learn about Pacific salmon, their habitat needs, and transform into “stream scientists,” studying a local waterway before participating in a stewardship project to leave that waterway in better condition for salmon.

This school year, 1,902 students from 81 classrooms participated in SFS. Collectively, they studied 16 local creeks and worked hard to improve the riparian zones of those creeks, planting 34 native trees and shrubs and removing 4,900 pounds of invasive vegetation.

Thanks to funding from National Oceanic Atmospheric Association - Bay Watershed Education and Training, NSEA hosted full day workshops for 62 teachers on the recently updated curriculum. The six curriculum units build upon each other creating a learning cycle facilitated by teachers in the classroom to extend the learning and bring the program full circle, leaving their students with a deeper knowledge of salmon, the threats they face in our region, and actions they can take to help salmon in their local watersheds.

Additionally, thanks to funding from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), students from 17 schools got to raise salmon from eggs to fry, before releasing them into their creek of study, connecting what they learned in the classroom and in the field with the importance of environmental stewardship to support salmon recovery.

The value of the SFS program is a combination of NSEA-led programming and a teacher facilitated in-class curriculum, while raising salmon in their classrooms. Students were fully immersed in salmon and watershed science education, providing a continuum from awareness to action, with the ultimate goal of environmental stewardship.  One teacher recently summarized the impact of the SFS program. “It taught my students a new respect for our salmon in the Pacific Northwest. The SFS Curriculum is very engaging and teacher friendly. The students love being scientists, the restoration project helps the students feel like they have contributed something wonderful to their community and the future salmon.”

Don’t forget to have some fun!

By Megan Adams, NSEA Outreach Coordinator and Restoration Technician

The room was packed. The crowd was buzzing with excitement and a healthy amount of friendly competition. People of all ages, including fresh-faced newcomers and committed veterans, gathered at Zeeks Pizza for NSEA’s 14th Annual Fish Trivia. While our focus at NSEA is to recover salmon through restoration, education, and stewardship, we never forget to have a bit of fun. Salmon recovery isn’t just about the work in the field because fun and celebration inspire hope, appreciation, and love for salmon, too. Fish Trivia was just that – an occasion for folks to gather, laugh, (maybe cry if they lost), and work together to not only test their knowledge, but support local salmon populations.

Grace with her team of trivia graders.

This year’s trivia was once again hosted by emcee extraordinaire, Jim Helfield, an Associate Professor at Western Washington University College of the Environment. 152 people (the largest turnout ever) filled every seat in Zeeks Pizza, who hosted and kindly donated one dollar per pint sold. After spearheading the event in 2022, Grace Pierstorff, NSEA’s Education Coordinator, was excited to revamp it for our first year without any partner organizations. Grace said, “It has been wonderful to partner with other orgs, but this year we wanted to simplify it and bring it back to NSEA. This meant I got to brainstorm new categories and new questions – only reusing a couple of the old favorites.” While participants enjoyed five rounds of fish-themed trivia (including NSEA facts, pop culture, music, minimalist movie posters, and a “connector” round), this was also an opportunity to recognize everything our community achieved last year. Grace’s favorite memory of the night was “hearing the shock in [participants’] voices when hearing some of the facts about how many students NSEA reached through their students for salmon program [over 1,500!] or how many plants volunteers planted at our Work Parties [over 9,000!].” Learn more about the impressive impacts we had in 2023 (and maybe get a leg up in the competition next year) by reading our annual report!

The Fish Trivia champions: Get Schooled!

The night concluded with a tie breaker. The top two teams, Get Schooled and Ours is Bigger, had to choose between a final question or a dance off for first place. To the disappointment of the bystanders, they opted for the question, “How many pounds was the heaviest salmon caught on record?” First-time winners, Get Schooled, were crowned champions! A member of the team, Steve, was ecstatic about finally winning Fish Trivia, one of his favorite nights of the year that he has attended since its early days. “Frankly, I was a little stunned,” Steve said. “I knew we had a strong team, but in this crowd there are so many knowledgeable folks, the competition is formidable. Being on a winning NSEA Fish Trivia team was a big thrill.” First place took home Lummi Island Wild prize boxes, second place won infrared sauna passes at Still Life Massage and Float, and, last but not least, the third-place team (1Fish2FishRedFishBlueFish) received NSEA Klean Kanteen pint cups.

Participants posing with their salmon hats.

Fish Trivia remains to be one of NSEA’s most successful events, growing steadily with record attendance for the past three years. All funds support our Education and Stewardship Programs but, more importantly, it has proven to be a significant night of celebrating salmon and everything we have achieved together to care for this keystone species. Work accomplished is incomplete without acknowledging and honoring the people who made it happen, and who we’re doing it for: the salmon.

“It is a truly wonderful community event that gathers people from many different backgrounds to celebrate salmon and the ways in which we can continue to all be stewards of our lands and waters. I'm looking forward to Fish Trivia continuing for years to come.” – Grace Pierstorff, NSEA Education Coordinator